Reach for your Dreams!

Dreams do come true!

I've created this page to tell you about a really neat friend of mine.

Theresa is a mom and a feisty, independed kind of woman. She creates and sells wonderful ceramics, jewelry, T-shirts, colored soaps and other crafts. She also sometimes works as a set painter for locally filmed movies, and paints signs for area businesses.

And you'd better believe, she gives great hugs!

So far that sounds a lot like a lot of us, actually, but there's one more thing: She does all of this without arms!   When she was 2 years old, she got caught in a ringer-washer, and her arms had to be amputated.

She has never let it slow her down, though. She has learned to live as normal a life as possible. She does have an aide who comes by to help out, for about four hours a day, and of course friends and family help too when they can.

She originally had hooks, but one day when her son was 6-months-old, she had to pull back and let him fall off the couch for fear of hurting him. That was when she decided to put the hooks away and do without them. She can do almost all of the things we take for granted, everyday things like cooking and laundry and gardening, but even things like personal hygeine are a time- and energy-consuming hassle. It's even hard to get clothes to fit properly! And, using her feet for everything all these years has put an incredible strain on her knees and they are starting to hurt all the time.

So she has made up her mind that she is going to raise the $12,000 she needs to buy a pair of artificial arms and hands.

Medicaid only covers artificial limbs for people up to age 20, so Theresa is determined that she is going to raise the money herself! She set up a sign at her crafts stand stating that she will be using the money she's earning to buy new arms.

She was a little self-conscious about having to tell her story to strangers at first, but most people are just great. Mainly she has to spend a lot of time explaining to younger people what a ringer-washer is! The people who are nicest and want to help the most are young people who don't really even have much yet themselves, and even the homeless. Only one person has been mean-spirited about it so far, and she forgave him because she figured he probably had problems that made him bitter.

The money she's raising is being placed in a fund set up by Carolina O&P Lab Inc., the people who are eventually going to fit her with her new arms. She'll also need to pay O&P for months of physical therapy and training to learn how to use the new arms when she gets them. She says "I'll probably give myself a lot of black eyes at first!" (You notice she doesn't say "If" she gets them, but "When!")

Updates

• After Theresa had been at this campaign for a few weeks she had deposited $244 into the fund, and it seemed like a long road ahead, but she was prepared to keep at it just as long as she had to. You tend to do that when you have a dream! The Wilmington Star-News heard about her quest and published a huge front-page article about her in the Sunday issue. The folks at the Star-News have given me permission to link the article; you can view it [here].



• After the article came out, people started sending money from all over the state! One fellow promised that when the fund gets up to $7,000, he will contribute the final $5,000 for the prosthetic arms. About $3,000 have been collected by the O&P lab so far!!



• July 26, 1998: I got a phone call from Theresa today! She sounded really shook up, so I was worried, but if she was in shock it was a happy shock! Someone, who asked to remain anonymous, walked into O&P and asked how much the balance was on the prosthetic arms. It was almost $9,000 at that point. He wrote a check on the spot for that amount!! He said only: "God has blessed me so I want to return the blessing to you."
  
  The Wilmington Star-News has an article about it that you can read [Here].

Theresa says that after she gets her new arms fitted she's going to go back down to her ceramics stand and change the sign:

"Thank you for my new arms! Please come shake my hand!"

If you would like to help with the therapy and training for the new arms (the price of the arms doesn't include that!) please email me at theresa@krystalrose.com   and I'll send you instructions on how to send a contribution to the Carolina O&P Lab.

Or, you can help by taking a copy of this little "Reach for a Dream!" button and putting it on you homepage. Link it back here (https://www.angelfire.com/nc/DreamReach) to help spread the word! Let's show everyone the Power of the Net for Good!

Here's the Guest Book!
Please View It! | Please Sign It!


Email: theresa@krystalrose.com

Please visit:

Carolina O&P Lab
Sunday Star-News Article
The Evolution of a Survivor
The Art of Hugging!

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